In proposing the wheel on Pier 57 last year, pier owner Great Western Pacific said it would enhance the waterfront, especially during the disruptive project to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel set to open in 2015 or 2016.

"We're not looking at it as a big money maker, but something that will keep the waterfront viable," Great Western Pacific Vice President Kyle Griffith said in October of 2010.

Pier 57 was built in 1902 as a rail-loading facility for a sawmill. It now houses pirate-y trinket shops, seafood restaurants, an antique carousel and other draws that exude touristy whiffs of Yukon's gold-mining era.

Plans call for the wheel to have 41 enclosed, air-conditioned gondolas and to be perpendicular to Alaskan Way, at the waterward end of the pier. The city's land-use decision says the wheel would be behind a building on the pier and have no impact on current views from Alaskan Way to Puget Sound.

If built, the ride would be the only Ferris wheel in the city, now that the city's Fun Forest amusement park is gone and plans for a giant wheel at Seattle Center were abandoned.